Wednesday, October 26, 2011

corner view: exotic

Exotic is a matter of perception. When I lived in China, my colleagues couldn't believe that I was taking pictures of people buying cabbage, hair salon signs, and mah-jongg players -- all very ordinary things to them. Like most people, I guess, I don't think of my hometown as being that exotic either. However, when I have foreign guests visit me, I'm always fascinated by the exotic things they find on my streets:

(1) Squirrels....the bane of my existence; hours of delight for my friends:


 (2) Fire hydrants. "You really have them? They aren't just in the movies?"


(3) Why all the fire hydrants? Because our houses are made of WOOD!


(4) Drive-thrus. Yes, I've taken foreign guests through the fast-food drive-thrus and the bank drive-thrus so that they could go home and say that they had done it. Here's one you might not have expected: a dry cleaning drive-thru.


(5) Farms. When my friend from NYC visited, we had to find a field and a large grocery store for her -- two things they don't have in her Manhattan neighborhood.


(6) Antiques. My Chinese students are fascinated by these family hand-me-downs. Since their grandparents had to dispose of their old furniture or be persecuted for holding on to manifestations of traditional thinking during the Cultural Revolution, my 19-year-old students have never seen antiques in homes. (P.S. I just learned that the nickname of the houseplant in this picture is "Mother-in-Law's Tongue.")


I'm really looking forward to seeing other interpretations of exotic this week for Corner View. Why don't you hop on for a ride around the world?
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13 comments:

  1. tanïaOctober 26, 2011 at 9:11 AM

    Ha, the most exotic of these for me it's the dry-cleaning drive-thru! Strange automobilised world!

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  2. DanaOctober 26, 2011 at 10:21 AM

    I've got a drive-thru that may seem exotic for you -- drive-thru daiquiri shops in South Louisiana. I kid you not.
    D

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  3. Crochet Renee'October 26, 2011 at 11:17 AM

    Great pictures!

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  4. BonnieOctober 26, 2011 at 1:46 PM

    i love your perspective on exotic !!

    here is mine ... http://bonnie-simple-beauty.blogspot.com/2011/10/exotic-corner-view.html

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  5. ElizabethOctober 26, 2011 at 3:19 PM

    I never considered a large grocery store exotic, but drive-thru cleaners - a novelty!

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  6. TallyOctober 26, 2011 at 9:24 PM

    very true.
    And living somewhere else/travelling sharpens the awareness of ones own home

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  7. KristinOctober 26, 2011 at 10:25 PM

    You have a beautiful house! I know the houses of only movies that is exotic for me. I like them very much.

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  8. FrancescaOctober 27, 2011 at 12:35 AM

    i remember the times when malls seemed exotic to us europeans! and now, they've just opened a little one here, in the middle of nowhere, about 20 kilometers away from me!

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  9. TheresaOctober 27, 2011 at 1:20 AM

    Fire hydrants like those are something that remind me of my hometown.

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  10. gisOctober 27, 2011 at 12:02 PM

    exoticness is a matter of your own life experience, indeed! Great post, thank you!

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  11. likeschocolateOctober 27, 2011 at 7:55 PM

    Cool post! I was once found exotic by groups of Japanese tourist when I lived in Alaska. They always wanted to have their pictures taken with me. I am assuming it was because of my blond hair because I am not anyone famous. We would always find it funny that they would take pictures of themselves in the grocery store holding cantelopes and other produce.

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  12. Karyn Taylor-MooreOctober 27, 2011 at 11:28 PM

    I love your choice of exotics. Many of them are certainly very exotic to me! Especially the drive-through dry-cleaners and the fire hydrant. We do have our fair share of fields and wooden houses (though perhaps few are so charming as yours!) here in New Zealand :-)

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  13. nadine paduartOctober 28, 2011 at 9:30 AM

    oh boy, finger on the wound here... i was one of those when i was in the states... like, "are traffic lights really dangling over streets like that, and those starsky and hutch cars really do glide along the boulevards????"
    ha ha ha...
    lovely reminder of that.
    n♥

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